The Blues are looking to replace St. Andrew’s with a sizable new home field, but veteran manager Tony Pulis says more is required to keep the supporters engaged.
Prioritizing the organization of their first-team roster should come before considering the construction of a new stadium for Birmingham City.
Tony Pulis claims that if the Blues don’t start getting good results, they will find it difficult to gain any ground.
Last July, American billionaire Tom Wagner completed the club’s ownership through his company Knighthead. Notable American football player and multiple Super Bowl winner Tom Brady is now a shareholder in Birmingham City.
Wagner has shown plenty of ambition to improve and expand the club since he took control of the Blues.
That was best exemplified recently, when he announced plans to build a new 62,000 capacity stadium for his side at Birmingham Wheels Park.
But while there are big plans for the Blues going forward off the pitch, there are plenty of more immediate on-field issues that the club need to address.
Birmingham City are battling to avoid Championship relegation
It has been a difficult season on the pitch for Birmingham when it comes to results in the Championship.
As things stand, with just two games of the season to go, the Blues are 22nd in the second tier standings – one point from safety.
| Championship Table (As it stands April 22nd) |
|
Team |
P |
GD |
Pts |
| 17 |
Stoke City |
44 |
-16 |
50 |
| 18 |
QPR |
44 |
-16 |
50 |
| 19 |
Blackburn Rovers |
44 |
-16 |
49 |
| 20 |
Plymouth Argyle |
44 |
-11 |
48 |
| 21 |
Sheffield Wednesday |
44 |
-29 |
47 |
| 22 |
Birmingham City |
44 |
-16 |
46 |
| 23 |
Huddersfield Town |
44 |
-27 |
44 |
| 24 |
Rotherham United (R) |
44 |
-53 |
24 |
Next up for the club is a trip to fellow strugglers Huddersfield Town on Saturday afternoon, before they end the campaign at home to play-off hopefuls Norwich City.
However, Pulis believes that Birmingham should be more concerned about avoiding relegation and putting together a team that can be competitive, than building their new ground.
Tony Pulis sends stadium warning to Birmingham City
Given the eye-catching and ambitious nature of Wagner’s plans for a new stadium, they have become a rather hotly discussed topic.
However, Pulis believes that there are more important things for Birmingham to worry about right now, when considering their position in the Championship table.
When asked for his thoughts on those plans to build a new stadium for the Blues, the former West Brom manager said: “They’ve got rich owners there now and it sounds as if they want to be progressive.
“However, you can have the best stadium in the world but if your team is not winning matches, you’re not going to fill it.
“Tom Brady and the owners’ priority has to be staying up first. After staying up, they need to look at strengthening the team on the pitch so they can stabilise in the Championship.
“Talk of building stadiums and doing this or that is good, and I’m sure the supporters are excited, but if you ask the majority of supporters will want the team to be sorted out before anything else.”
Championship status the main issue for Birmingham City
It feels hard to argue with these comments from Pulis about avoiding relegation and building a squad being more important for Birmingham right now.
As Wagner himself has suggested recently, building this new stadium will not be at all cheap for the club.
The funds to do so will obviously have to come from somewhere, and that may impact the budget there is available to invest in areas such as the playing squad.
But as this season has arguably shown, that may be something of a risk, with the club now in an incredibly precarious position in the Championship table.
If they do not stay up, or allow themselves to get into this position again, then the financial losses of the drop into the third-tier would make it even harder to fund the same.
This therefore, feels like something of a vicious cycle, whereby Birmingham will struggle to build this stadium if they are not in a better position than they are, while constructing the stadium, will make it harder to put together a squad that can improve their situation.
As a result, it does feel as though the Blues must make sure they are not under threat of relegation, before they start thinking about breaking ground on this new stadium.
